Dive Brief:
- Southern New Hampshire University has transformed itself from a struggling 2,000-student private school to an online giant with 180 different programs and an enrollment of 34,000.
- Its president, Paul LeBlanc, took over in 2003 and made online education a priority, naming as a trustee Clay Christensen, the Harvard professor who wrote "The Innovator’s Dilemma."
- LeBlanc says his school's online classes are tailored to the vast majority of students — those who are working while learning, rather than the traditional (and disappearing) undergraduate fresh from high school.
Dive Insight:
As the article notes, some of the school's methods seem to be along the lines of the University of Phoenix, with television ads and a lot of resources dedicated to recruitment. But LeBlanc maintains there is one important difference: SNHU is nonprofit. That certainly makes a difference in cost for students. The title of one online review seems to sum up the space SNHU occupies succinctly: "Not Harvard But Not UOP Either."